Metro RTA Fires Its Director and Promises a National Search for His Successor

The Akron Metro RTA trustees fired Executive Director Richard Enty Friday afternoon. He’s been on paid administrative leave since November while investigations into his conduct on the job have been underway.

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Firing Richard Enty

Attorney Karen Adinolfi, legal counsel for Metro RTA, says the finance director will continue to run the public-transit agency until a permanent director is found.

Credit Tim Rudell / WKSU

During a special meeting, the trustees voted 8-1, with one abstention, to terminate Richard Enty’s contract. They were unanimous in declining comment on reasons for the firing.

The board’s legal counsel, Karen Adinolfi, says members will likely take up the discussion of recruiting a new executive director at their next regular meeting, Jan. 30th.

Until a successor is found, she says Finance Director Angela Neely will remain acting director.

Enty was named executive director in 2012. He's been suspended three times. In the past year, he has been investigated for alleged policy breaches in his treatment of employees, and possible ethics violations. Results of those investigations have not been made public.

Enty's attorney, Ed Gilbert, has said Enty's been unfairly targeted by other employees who wanted his job.

Enty intimated to the Beacon Journal that race may have been a factor in the firing, saying, "There’s a number people who are just not used to a strong African-American leader, and that’s the troubling aspect of this.”

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Enty has been on paid administrative leave -- his third suspension in his five years heading the public transit agency -- since November.

The agency’s board held a special meeting today to discuss “a personnel matter.” Immediately after assembling, the Board went into executive session. It adjourned without comment about an hour later. Legal counsel Karen Adinolfi would only say that no decisions were made.

The board of Summit County’s public transportation agency has set a special meeting for tomorrow as its executive director enters the third month of a suspension and the FBI is making inquiries.

Richard Enty has been on paid leave since early November, when Akron Metro RTA board President Saundra Foster resigned. They’d been the focus of a complaint to the Ohio Ethics Commission that Enty gave Foster gifts – including a car starter -- and rides at a time when she was overseeing negotiations on his new three-year contract.

The Executive Director of Akron Metro RTA has been suspended after the transit agency’s board of trustees voted to place Richard Enty on paid administrative leave. It's the third time Enty has been suspended.

The board met in a special session at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, then went into executive session for about an hour.